Lost e-mail contacts after Live Essentials update

[JeanieD]

If I install the update, I lose my complete e-mail address/contact list. If I don't install the update I can't open my Live Mail at all. I miss Outlook Express SO much! I'm a senior and I don't need Live Essentials bells and whistles.

 

[koolkat77]

Welcome to the forums JeanieD

Did you come across this page already?: How do I import and export email, contacts, and calendars with Windows Live Mail? - Import Email Messages or Back Up and Restore Windows Live Mail and http://www.emailquestions.com/windows-live-mail/2487-backup-windows-live-mail-2011-a.html

For outlook express, you could take a look at this tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5481-windows-mail.html

HTH

 

[JeanieD]

Thank you for the link. As is typical with me and my computer, my results are not the same as the results described in the instructions.
I opened Windows Live Mail intending to import my contacts, but I don't have these sections, with their accompanying icons, arranged vertically:
Mail
Calendar
Contacts
Feeds
Newsgroups

Mine are arranged horizontally (Mail Calendar Contacts Feeds Newsgroups) and I don't seem to have a ribbon to click on.

But I do appreciate your trying to help.

 

[roncerr]

If I install the update, I lose my complete e-mail address/contact list. If I don't install the update I can't open my Live Mail at all. I miss Outlook Express SO much! I'm a senior and I don't need Live Essentials bells and whistles.

I'm not sure what update people are talking about. Perhaps it only applies to those who have already upgraded to WLM 2011 from 2009 or are using 2011 from the start. In any case, no matter which version, every user has 2 contact lists to choose from: signed-in or not-signed-in, depending on whether or not the user has "signed-in" to WLM. So make sure your "signed-in" status is the same as it was when you set up your contact list. (If you don't want to sign-in just set the "Option" under "Connections" to "Stop signing in".) Keep in mind that signing in has the advantage of letting Microsoft keep track of you contacts at "contacts.live.com" so you will never have to worry about loosing them or backing them up again.

 

[JeanieD]

The update popped up in the lower right corner - I couldn't open Live Mail without agreeing to it.
I don't sign in to WLM and never have. I don't see "Connections" anywhere - if I did I'd be delighted to opt out!

I did a search for "contacts" and found it preceding Desktop and Downloads, so I guess I can just go there when I need an address. Annoying, but at least they aren't gone.

Referring back to the tutorial for Outlook Express - I consider myself to be relatively intelligent but that left me completely confused and I wouldn't dare tackle it!

 

[roncerr]

...I don't see "Connections" anywhere...

...I did a search for "contacts" and found it preceding Desktop and Downloads, so I guess I can just go there when I need an address. Annoying, but at least they aren't gone....

1) The "Connection" tab is one of may tabs in the "Options" window.

2)The c:/<username>/Contacts folder is not used by WLM. If you like, if you have contacts in it, you can Import them into WLM's contacts pane by choosing "Import...Address book for current Windows user". It will be imported into WLM's "signed-in" or "not-signed-in" contact list depending upon whether or not you have signed in to WLM with your LiveID.

 

[JeanieD]

Unbelievable. I followed instructions to click on my user name, type "contacts" in the address bar, and sure enough up they came. Then the instructions said to click "Import" - which didn't appear in my toolbar. For some bizarre reason my contacts are in a Music folder, where my options are to include in library, share, burn etc. I certainlydidn't put them there! Im getting so tired of this. But I do appreciate your efforts to help this poor befuddled old woman.

 

[roncerr]

...I followed instructions to click on my user name, type "contacts" in the address bar, and sure enough up they came. Then the instructions said to click "Import" - which didn't appear in my toolbar...

"instructions"...I don't know whose instructions you are talking about or what program they are for. WLM is separate from your browser and does not have an address bar. It can share the same contact list as the one used by the browser-based Hotmail website. If you sign-in to WLM you can import contacts into its contact pane using the contacts pane choice to "Import...from Current Windows User" which will take them from the <username>/Contacts folder in Windows Explorer, if that's where you want to obtain them from. That may be easier than trying to do it through Hotmail in your browser.

 

[Alice99]

Did a Windows Live Essentials update. After, my email contacts were all gone. Did system restore, exported the old addys to a folder. After closing Windows Live Mail, I could not reopen mail without re-doing the WLE update. So, I did. When I went to the CONTACTS tab (bottom left) it never really opens. It clears the emails or calendar from the main window, but leaves the same 'ribbon' (or task bar or whatever at the top). It doesn't show the options that should be there for 'contacts' (no import/export/etc). ANY suggestions?

 

[roncerr]

...ANY suggestions?

Check this thread: https://www.sevenforums.com/browsers-mail/236569-mandatory-wle-upgrade.html

 

[JeanieD]

I've conceded defeat - too complicated.

 

[Miggster]

Answer to this

Hi All I know this is old Post but wanted to clarify that First go into folder and view options and uncheck hide files and folders, Also uncheck hide System Files and OS. The contacts list is not in Windows Live Mail folder at all . but it is located here

c:\Users\<username>\App Data\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live\Contacts\Default\Dimmed out DBStore Folder\contacts.edb Copy that file to your new Windows Live Folder and Viola. Again not in the Windows Live Mail Folder but the Windows Live Folder. I got very fustrated and confused then Poking around I found it there.Thanks

Gar.Net Solutions in Nanaimo

 

[roncerr]

...
c:\Users\<username>\App Data\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live\Contacts\Default\Dimmed out DBStore Folder\contacts.edb

Copy that [^] file to your new Windows Live Folder...

I assume you mean copy it to the proper subfolder within the Windows Live Folder. However, the locations of the database files (there are several) can all be found by putting "*contacts.edb" into the Windows Explorer search box after highlighting the ".../appdata/Local/Microsoft" folder. Since the OP says she "lost" the contacts, expanding the search to an even higher level may help. Since she lost them when doing an upgrade from one version of WLM to another, there is no telling which subfolder they would or should be in since the various versions of WLM store things differently. The version I use, 2009, is more like Outlook Express than the newer versions with the ribbon, and it does have six contacts.edb files in six different folders all contained within a folder called "Windows Live Contacts". So if they are on the computer at all, a search may be needed to find them, and where they belong depends upon the new WLM version in use. That's why it pays to always "sign-in" to WLM, letting Microsoft keep a continuously updated copy in the cloud, so you never have to worry about them again.